Houston, can you hear me?

We left The Big Easy bright and early this morning. It is a beautiful city and the Garden District had so many impressive houses with “Iron Lace” balconies. But time to move on to Texas.
We drove across southern Louisiana for about 4 hours. Don is doing all the driving. Don’t ask me why, I have a really good record. Every time I ask him if he wants me to drive, he is pretty quick to say “No.” Hmm.

But anyway, I am happy navigating, reading billboards (out loud, of course) and doing other inane things. (Ted Turner is now divorcing Jane Fonda on disc 12.)

We have driven through Creole, Cajun, and Zydeco country. Claire gave us a great book…1000 US Places to See…and in reading through it as we drive reminds me of how much we are still missing as we cruise on Interstate 10. Will have to plan another trip.

We stopped for lunch at Rabideaux’s which is a “sausage restaurant.” The place is a meat market/mini mart/restaurant. Our Audi was the only car in the parking lot…the other 15 vehicles were pick-ups (there was also one Harley). Don had a sausage hoagie (sort of like kielbasa) and I had a boudin sandwich which is a southern sausage, not smoked and somewhat delicate (is that an oxymoron when talking about sausage?) with lots of rice in it. We looked a little out of place there (as most Audi drivers would) but I would recommend a visit if you are ever in Iowa, Louisiana.

We arrived in Houston and realized that we are now half-way across the country. The weather is 67 degrees. We were able to see the Houston smog from about 20 miles out. This town is really dedicated to burning up as much fossil fuel as possible. Having worked for Exxon, I should know. It isn’t my favorite place to visit, but we are stopping to see friends…an ex-colleague of Don’s from Columbia and another friend who is on the faculty at Rice. Rice University is supposed to be in a lovely area of Houston, so I am hoping to change my opinion of the town.

Tomorrow, we will get on the road to San Antonio. Ernie recommended that we stop in Lockhart, TX http://www.lockhart-tx.org/web98/visitors/bbqcapitaloftexas.asp which is the barbeque capital of the Texas and so that is the lunch plan. Did I mention that I brought a bathroom scale with us on the trip? Did I also mention that I haven’t yet dug it out of the trunk of our car?